Alison Kim is a Chinese-Korean artist, writer, and archivist of Asian/Pacific Islander lesbian writings and ephemera. She lived on the Monterey Peninsula, then Santa Cruz, and currently lives in San Francisco with her wife and adult children. While in Santa Cruz she was a student at UCSC, but that is not why she initially came here. Alison was in search of a larger out lesbian community which led her to Santa Cruz. Though she found a larger community here, she began to explore her identity as an Asian American lesbian and that community was not reflected here. She saw Santa Cruz as a stepping stone toward connecting to the larger Asian lesbian communities in San Francisco, so she would travel between Santa Cruz and San Francisco where she would attend various community meetings and events. She was among the editors of the groundbreaking anthology on Pacific/Asian lesbian writings, Between the Lines (1987). She also gave back to her learning community by donating her archival collection of Asian/Pacific Islander materials to the UC Library.
“I didn’t really know the value of my own work until I heard people reiterate it. I’m really proud now that I have this body of work and it’s part of the library, that it’s accepted as academic, scholarly, of value. I never really could say that because it was always so personal. It was always my own thing. It was my search, my desire. I wanted to see myself. I wanted to read about other people like me.”
Audio Interview
Regional History Project
(1977/2004)
Between the Lines: An Anthology by Pacific/Asian Lesbians of Santa Cruz, California
© Regents of the University of California. Courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz. Audio detail from the Regional History Project Collection, Alison Kim: Out in the Redwoods, Documenting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1965-2003. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5x2442k1.
Regional History Project
Alison Kim (circa 2000) with the finding aid to the Asian Pacific Islander Lesbian Collection that she donated to the University Library.
© Regents of the University of California. Courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz. Regional History Project Collection, Alison Kim: Out in the Redwoods, Documenting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, 1965-2003. Retrieved from https://exhibits.library.ucsc.edu/exhibits/show/seeds/item/2096 and https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5x2442k1.
The University of California’s Regional History Project documents the stories of Santa Cruzans since 1963. They continue with that work today. These stories not only document unique lives, but also tell a larger story about the life of agricultural and lumber laborers, business women, students, LGBTQIIA, and communities of color in Santa Cruz County. Listen to Santa Cruzans share their experiences in their own words. If you navigate to the MAH Do You Know My Name? virtual exhibit, you can further explore links to their stories and listen to the full interviews through the Regional History Project.
© Regents of the University of California. Courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California Santa Cruz. Regional History Project Collection. Retrieved from https://library.ucsc.edu/regional-history-project.
